Backsliding At The Cha

January 16, 1985

The next time Mayor Washington frets about not getting credit for trying to reform City Hall, someone should direct his attention a few blocks south to the headquarters of the Chicago Housing Authority.

There his pal Renault Robinson, stripped of his CHA management duties more than a year ago because of his slapstick performance, still has a staff of five drawing $133,000 a year. What they do is a mystery.

Now the mayor`s allies are lobbying to get a top CHA executive job for another of his friends, Joseph Gardner, who has just finished a less-than-spectacular stint as head of Mr. Washington`s political organization.

These may not rate very high on Chicago`s long list of patronage abuses, but they`re important because they undercut the mayor`s claim that he is ushering in a brand new era of political purity. The next time he denounces one of his city council opponents for stuffing a committee payroll with relatives and cronies, the accused alderman can point to the $29,800-a-year job of ``executive administrative assistant`` that Mr. Robinson created for his brother-in-law, and to two similar posts he whipped up for long-time friends.

Renault Robinson`s sole responsibility with the CHA is to preside at monthly board meetings. Other board members serve without pay and so should he, but he was given a $30,000-a-year salary as a thank-you present for relinquishing his $60,000-a-year job as the CHA`s chief executive. Getting $30,000 in return for promising to do nothing is bad enough, but why on earth should he have a staff of five to help him?

The maneuvering to install Joseph Gardner as CHA deputy director for tenant services could do even more damage. Mr. Robinson wastes a lot of scarce tax dollars but presumably has no authority over public housing policy and operations. Mr. Gardner, though, would be in a position to have a great deal to say about tenant affairs, and no political operative should be in that role.

Last year, Mayor Washington proudly announced that at his instruction the CHA was hiring its first qualified, professional executive director, Zirl Smith. For months Mr. Smith has been quietly at work assembling a staff and trying to clean up the messes left by his predecessors. If he is forced to give a key job to Mr. Gardner instead of making his own selection, how long can he be expected to put up with the frustrations of his running Chicago`s troubled public housing system?

Mr. Washington loves to talk about stomping on the grave of patronage. But obviously not everybody`s patronage is buried there.